MUMBAI, Mar 9: Optimism on the political front, coupled with hectic buying by local operators following higher backwardation charges, saw the 30-share BSE Sensitive Index cross the crucial barrier of 3,800 points on Monday. Local punters cornered shares of select pivotals and MNCs in huge numbers which took the Sensex to an intra-day high of 3,810.21. The Sensex, however, closed slightly lower at 3,807.21, registering a net gain of 98.63 points over Friday's close.
The Nifty Index recorded a gain of 18.05 points to close at 1,099.50 points. About 99 stocks hit the upper end circuit filter on the NSE. Hectic buying in the shares of BPL, Cochin Refineries, Corporation Bank, LML, ITC, Nestle, Pentafour Software, SmithKline Consumer, Nedungadi Bank and Raasi Cement saw these scrips touch their respective 52-week highs.
Reliance Industries led the rally on the bourses on Monday. The stock registered a record volume of 1.44 crore shares on the BSE. According to brokers, this is the second instance of volumesin the scrip breaching the 1-crore mark. The last time the volume in the scrip overshot this mark was in October 1997 when the company announced a liberal 1:1 bonus issue. On the NSE, shares worth Rs 330 crore changed hands in the scrip.
According to market sources, Schroder's was rumoured to have picked up about 35-50 lakh shares of Reliance in the price range of Rs 170-175. The stock touched an intra-day high of Rs 180 on the BSE, a sharp rise of over 9 per cent. The scrip closed at Rs 180.80 on the NSE. Oppenheimer and Capital International were also reported to have placed huge buy orders at the counter. The operator-driven ITC counter, after having attracted a phenomenal backwardation charge of over Rs 34 on Saturday, touched a new 52-week high of Rs 728.60 on the NSE to register a gain of 3.83 per cent. The stock recorded a turnover of Rs 525 crore on the NSE and Rs 343 crore on the BSE.
Rumours on takeovers and mergers continued to haunt the market. Stocks of Garware Polyester, Philips, BharatForge and Apollo Tyres appreciated by over 9 per cent on an average.
Another counter that witnessed substantial gain on rumours of a takeover was Crompton Greaves. The stock was locked at the upper end of the circuit filter at Rs 33.90 on the BSE, with 1.51 lakh shares changing hands. Brokers said rumours that GE Capital may make an open offer to the shareholders of Crompton Greaves were however set aside by the company officials.
